Exploring the chemistry of flameless food heater packs.
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- Опубліковано 27 сер 2024
- In this video I’ll show you how to make a Flameless Ration Heater ( FRH). The formula in commercially available ones is explored. The commercially available heating packs use an alloy of magnesium and iron which is impossible to make in the home setting. The iron magnesium alloy is activated with addition of water. The commercial FRH packs also contain salt which helps to activate the metal alloy when the water is added. First we will test a commercially available pack to see how well it heats or cooks food.
Then I will show you how to make an FRH at home with readily available materials. We will compare its effectiveness with the commercially available product. You’ll be amazed by the results. The ingredients are readily available and the packs are easy to make.
Glad to see you back posting, sir.
Thanks things got a bit crazy😁. Happy to be back!!!
Totally cool idea! Thanks for sharing it.
Thank you so much for doing this video! Thankfully I have aluminum left over from "projects" that were done years ago, projects that I have abandoned for obvious reasons. This is just perfect, seriously good.
I have been experimenting with hand warmers a little bit, called Hot Hands. They are essentially Iron and Salt with some vermiculite and charcoal to hold water and mediate the reaction to prolong it. They also come in a semi-permeable bag that could be reused like the MRE heater. When the hand warmer is used up it essentially looks like pure rust inside, which I do wonder if this can be reacted with salt water to the aluminum?
I digress, time for some more experiments, and I will subscribe as well.
This was really a fun experiment to do. The aluminum powder definitely makes a lot of heat. The calcium oxide is readily available. I can’t believe that more people don’t try to make these type of food heater packs.
You earned a Subscriber 👍
Really well explained ✅
I was thinking, what material is the packet made up of ??
Do you know the answer??
Thank you. I appreciate your sub!!!!
Thanks for this
You’re welcome - I’m really glad you enjoyed the video.
Question about the aluminum powder, is it "pure aluminum" or "aluminum oxide" powder?
For this experiment I got the "pure aluminum" powder in 10-20 micron fineness,
For packaging I used commercially available polypropylene non-woven bags, double bagged and stapled tight.
The aluminum particles was so tiny that some of them "leaked" thru the packaging and turn the water kind of "silvery" looking
At the end the heat reaction did not occurred. May be there are some ingredients missing, like sodium bicarbonate?
For this experiment I wore latex gloves, and mask to avoid breathing in and touching the aluminum powder.
That's a Great idea and seems to work Great👍🏻👍🏻
Thanks man!! Really appreciated. Think it’ll be real useful as it can be done at home. The stuff in the regular Flameless packs is impossible to make because it needs magnesium metal alloyed with iron.
who makes this in china..i need and what kind of ideas you think will work...am in to food and dehydrated food. can it help
i wander if i could make one with coffee filters as a pouch
I’m going to put together a vid on how to reuse the pads and recycle them so that you never need to buy them again
that would be great
Possibly with reusable tea bags ?
Only one thing missing: how can we make our own bags?! 😃
The cloth for the bags I’m sure is commercially available. It has to be heat and alkali proof!!!
@@Jay-jl3ou I just use a staple to close them off. The staples stay together fine, and when the heating is done, and the bag has cooled off, the staples are easy to remove, and with emptying of the bag contents, washing the bags and drying for reuse. Alternatively, a large metal clip could be used to avoid damaging the edges of the bag with repeat use of the staples.
The commercial ones have a somewhat dodgy shelf life and it’s hit or miss whether they work or not after storage.
Yes noticed. I have some old store bought ones which won’t activate. The aluminum powder/ quicklime works every time!!!
What is the bag made of?
It’s some kind of heat resistant cloth material
TOO
TOO
COOL.
Now that is freakin AWESOME.
Q- What kind of pouches are the best to purchase in quantity?
THANX
… another subscriber.
Thank you!
I will see if I can find what material these heat resistant cloth pouches are made of!
@@BrianDhvTinkerer ice melt will work as well
The aluminium powder you mention.Is it aluminium sulfate powder...AL2(SO4)3 ?
It’s Mg-Iron alloy
@@BrianDhvTinkerer How can Mg-Iron Alloy be called aluminium powder? its mentioned 99% pure aluminium powder on the container. Pls can u make this clear. Also how pure is the calcium oxide powder? Calcium oxide absorbs moisture to become calcium hydroxide doesnt it? Will the reaction still work if the calcium oxide is less pure ( starts hydrating into calcium hydroxide)??
@@ajitnairk010 will still work. The mixture would need to be stored in a moisture proof container. A ziplock bag will work fine. Calcium hydroxide is what reacts with aluminum. In the presence of water, this reaction is very fast as it’s the hydroxide anion in aqueous solution reacting with Al that makes the heat and hydrogen gas byproduct.
@@BrianDhvTinkerer this is absolutely outstanding!!! Thank you so much can to include the links where these items can be purchased on your Amazon store so as to make sure I get the correct ingredients?. Thx in advance
@@BrianDhvTinkerer so is it mg-iron alloy or pure aluminium powder?
I know I’m late to the party here since the video came out some time ago but I have a question. Where can I buy the bags or the material to make them?
The flameless heater packs can be bought from here:
a.co/d/dtBZRdL
Once used, the bags can be cut open and refilled according to the video. They should be good for many heating runs.
Isn’t the resulting slew highly caustic? Also why add the Al wouldn’t it work with just the CaO alone?
Not really. The calcium hydroxide formed is basically insoluble and stays within the packet. The aluminum becomes aluminum oxide, aluminum hydroxide. I did try making something with sodium hydroxide and that is a different story all together.